TwitVid, the service once known as the go-to destination for uploading videos to share on Twitter, has rebranded itself as Telly, and now has much bigger ambitions.
WebProNews spoke with TwitVid and Telly founder Mo Adham about the launch. He tells us that the goal is to “solve the problem of video discovery.”
You may not have any trouble discovering videos on YouTube, but Telly goes far beyond that, including videos from YouTube, Hulu, CNN, and ESPN, not to mention Twitvid’s own 10-million strong library and others. Eventually, Adham tells us, more videos from the web at large will be included. So some day in the not too distant future, you may find our own hosted WPN videos, for example, when you use Telly’s search feature.
“iPhones and Android devices have caused an exponential growth in the amount of video published on the web,” says Adham. “How can users find great video to watch, and how do video creators, both big and small, reach relevant viewers when over 100 hours of video is uploaded every minute? This is a big problem that we understand well, and today Telly is taking the first step in reshaping how online video is viewed and distributed in today’s world.”
Like TwitVid, Telly is much more than just a way to search for videos. It’s something of a social network. You can share videos with friends, discover videos from friends, and collect videos that you come across, storing them for easy access from your profile. But don’t worry. You don’t need another social media account. You just sign in with Facebook or Twitter.
TwitVid has typically been more associated with Twitter, but Telly comes with Facebook Timeline integration. As we’ve seen with other apps, that can provide a tremendous boost to user adoption. It will be interesting to see how Telly is able to take advantage.
The service lets you follow specific people, as well as interests. There is a main stream and an activity feed (similar to Facebook). In the activity feed, you can see things like “Matt Forte watched 5 videos”:
Of course, you can always post your own videos directly to Telly.
Last year, TwitVid launched a major redesign, turning itself into less the place to upload videos for Twitter, and more into a YouTube alternative. Telly seems to be the next evolutionary step for the service, and is perhaps the most promising. Getting the “Twit” out of the name should only help the company establish itself as its own entity, and not scare away non-Twitter users and people who simply associate the service with Twitter.
Telly is ultimately the product of two acquisitions TwitVid recently made: Cull.tv and Frugalo. The former is an online video service, which will be phased out, and the latter was actually a daily deals service. Don’t expect any daily deals from Telly though. This was only a talent acquisition, Adham tells us.
Telly has been designed with the living room in mind, but later this year, Adham tells us, mobile and tablet apps will be on the way.
You can access Telly at Telly.com. TwitVid will eventually redirect to Telly. Adham says they’re slowly shifting it over.
The company is based in San Francisco, and is backed by Azure Capital Partners and Draper Fisher Jurvetson.
